bright eyed
by tatty ted
Summary: "Well if it isn't Charlie Fairhead, not dead yet then?" Charlie looks up, his eyes falling upon a familiar face. She hasn't changed at all in a couple of years, "Charlie, what are you doing here?" Charlotte, known as Charlie arrives in the ED. Why has she arrived from Columbia? And is it really because she wants to be a Nurse? - —Charlie/OC, short story.
1. CHAPTER I

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**bright eyed,**  
_do you know what it feels like?_

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She didn't really know when she chose to become a nurse, she knew it was most likely when she was young. It could've been when she was putting the bandage on her teddy's arm or listening to her mother's heartbeat through her plastic stethoscope.

She wonders if it's in her genes, nursing because her mother's a nurse and maybe that's what influenced her decision. Following her mother's footsteps and all that.

As a child she spent most of her time in the accident and emergency department, after school, during the holidays. It became part of her and who she was. At a young age she became obsessed with caring for people, seeing them as individuals and not a jigsaw puzzle.

"I want to go back to England!" She announces proudly one afternoon, three days after her eighteenth birthday. She loves being in Columbia but she wants to train in England, become a Nurse and work for the National Health Service.

Her mother doesn't want her to leave, she wants to keep her only daughter in cotton wool and sheild her from the world. She knows she can't. She knows she has to let her daughter go and live her life, make her own mistakes and finally learn.

She goes to England, enrolls in a Nursing degree at Cardiff University and becomes dedicated to becoming a Nurse, a good Nurse like her mother. She gets a part time job in a supermarket on the checkouts and has a one bedroom flat over looking the river.

She writes to her mother twice a week, rings four times and answers every question the same; ("yes mother, i'm well. yes mother, i will. yes mother, don't worry, i'm a big girl. yes, i miss you too. goodbye mum, i love you.")

She has a couple of bouts of homesickness, mainly when it's pouring for three days straight and she misses the weather, her mother and her siblings. It's hard for her to adapt here but she knows why she's doing it, this is her future and where she wants to be, _who_ she wants to be.

She goes through god knows how many placements per year, every report coming back glowing. She's _too perfect_, too wonderful when it comes to Nursing. She has, what's the word — a natural talent for helping people.

She's a mixture of emotions when she receives her final placement, she's at Holby. She doesn't know if there's a reason or not but she's both scared and excited at the prospect of working at the hospital she grew up in.

She stands outside the Emergency Department, her eyes running over the sign at the front saying Entrance. She bites her lip and takes a deep breath, trying to ignore the sick feeling thats inside her stomach, reasurring herself everything's going to be fine.

She hitches her handbag over her shoulder and walks through the doors and towards reception.

She reaches the front desk and leans against it, "Hey, I'm here to see—" She pauses when her eyes fall upon a familiar face. Noel looks at the young woman in front of him and frowns a little, "Excuse me, can I help you?"

"Well if it isn't Charlie Fairhead, not dead yet then?"

Charlie looks up, his eyes falling upon a familiar face. She hasn't changed at all in a couple of years except her natural blonde hair is dyed black and she's got a lip piercing, not to mention she's gained a more English accent these days.

"Charlie, what are you doing here?"

There's a pause. Noel looks between the two and decides to leave them. As he walks away, Charlie answers; "You're looking at your new Student Nurse, aren't you going to welcome me home?"

"I didn't realise it was you, I didn't recognise the name."

She laughs and twists the ring around her finger, "I didn't recognise your name on the letter either, suppose that teaches me to read things properly. I always knew mum was right about you, you'll _never_ ever leave this place."

He nods, he's been told that plenty of times that he'd never leave. The truth was, he didn't know anywhere else, he'd always been here in Holby. He was too old for change plus he had Megan to think about now and she was settled here.

"How is your mother?"

She smiles, "Oh my mum's fine, you know, doing what she does best. Working too hard, not taking care of herself, doing too much and never asking for help. You know how it is, how she likes to be in control of everything. God Charlie, we have _soooo _much to catch up on!"

He laughs and agrees, they really do have a lot to catch up on.

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**jottings** — if you like it enough to favourite/alert, please leave a review:3


	2. CHAPTER II

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**CHAPTER TWO**.  
_you've been messing around._

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They agree to catch up soon, have a non alcoholic drink and discuss what's been going on here since she was last in England. She has her meeting with Tess Bateman, a woman that Charlie could only describe in one word — scary.

She's introduced to the team. There's Charlie who she already knows, Linda, Lloyd, Fletch as the Nurses. Ash, Zoe, Sam and Tom were the Doctors. Noel and Louise were the two receptionists, Jeff and Dixie and occasionally Norman were the paramedics and Big Mac as the porter.

She was introduced last to the other student nurses last.

Aoife, Robyn and Jamie, "Hey," she says nervously as she feels three pairs of eyes on her.

She's already formed an opinion on them. Aoife is clearly the gobshite so to speak, Robyn is loud and doesn't lack confidence and Jamie's probably "one of the lads". She doesn't really want to know what their opinion of her is, some girl taking their friend's place probably.

"Hey," they answer back and then there's nothing, just silence. It's awkward and Charlie decides to break the ice,

"I don't want you to think I'm taking — what's her name — Ally's place because I'm not. It was my university that gave me the placement here because there was a place available. I'm sorry if you think I'm replacing Ally because, well because I'm not."

All three nod but before either of them say anything, there's a major road traffic accident coming in.

Charlie's her mentor and she thinks it's strange because he was her mother's mentor and know he's become hers. She knows he's the best, she wouldn't want to be taught from anyone other than Charlie.

"Are you ready?"

She shakes her head, "Ready? You've gotta be kidding me."

She does okay, well personally she thinks she's done shite but Charlie reasurres her that she did a good job today. The others do too and she tells herself she'll do better tomorrow, today was today, tomorrow was tomorrow, things could change.

She's stood talking to Charlie and Aoife, Robyn and Jamie look between each other and then back at them.

"I think they know each other, like before today. Look at their body language." Robyn comments and they nod and hum. Aoife answers that instead of speculating, they should just ask, there'd be no harm in it.

"Charlie, can we have a word?"

She nods and finishes her conversation with Charlie before she slowly walks towards them, "Yeah?"

There's a pause and all three of them look at each other. Jamie decides to speak for them; "You're close to Charlie aren't you?"

"What's that meant to mean?" She asks and catches the glance between all three. She sighs and knowing she's back into a corner decides now wouldn't be a bad time to reveal the connection with Charlie, "Good observational skills but then again, I wouldn't expect anything less from a bunch of student Nurses."

Charlie smiles softly, "My name's actually Charlotte but for as long as I can remember, everyone's called me Charlie. My mother was a Nurse, she worked with Charlie for years hence the reason they decided to call me "Charlie" Today's the first time I've seen Charlie in four years, I've not long moved back to England."

"Where did you live?" Robyn askes curiously and Charlie answers, "Columbia, it was New Zealand before that. As much as I loved being in Columbia, I've always wanted to work for the National Health Service, it's something we're really lucky to have over here."

"What's Columbia like?" Jamie asks.

Charlie raises an eyebrow and smiles; "Are we playing a game of twenty-one questions? Tell you what, meet me in the pub in five minutes and I'll buy the first rounds okay? Then you three can quiz me all you want, on one condition, I get to do the same to you lot."

They agree and Charlie watches as they leave the Emergency Department. She turns on her heels and decides to find Charlie. She finds him in his office and she leans against the door, arms folded across her chest, "Working hard as usual I see."

He turns in his chair and looks at her, "Why are you really back here, Charlotte."

Charlie shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know what you mean."

"Come off it, you left your family in Columbia almost three years ago and for what? To train as a Nurse? I know you Charlotte, I know you get home sick so why did you leave?"

There's a pause and Charlie bites her lower lip slightly, "I know the truth Charlie, I know the truth about everything."

She didn't say another word as she walked out of the office. Charlie sat in his chair and wondered what she meant. She knew the truth, the truth about what? He was confused, he didn't know what she meant but he put down his pen and went to find her but he couldn't.

She was already next door in the pub.

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**jottings** — if you like it enough to favourite/alert, please leave a review:3


	3. CHAPTER III

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**CHAPTER THREE.**  
_we used to be just like twins._

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She meets the others in the pub next door and she asks what they're having. It's a bottle of wine for the girls and a pint of largar for Jamie. They sit at a table at the back of the pub and Charlie takes off her jacket and pours each of them a glass.

"So, what do you want to know?" She asks.

Each of them are silent until Jamie breaks the silence, "Where were you brought up?"

She takes a sip of wine and answers back, "I was brought up here, in Holby. My parents were too so Holby's in my genes. As for the hospital, it became part of my childhood you know, I was here all the time."

Robyn swirls the red liquid around her glass and asks, "Do you have any siblings?"

"Three brothers," she announces, "Peter, Jake and Paul."

"So you're the only girl?"

"Yeah, they're really protective over me but I wouldn't have it any other way." She smiles and necks her wine in one. As she slams the glass down on the table, she makes eye contact with all three and smirkes; "What? Worried you won't be able to catch up?"

Aoife smiles, "I'll get the next round, what are you having?"

The evening passes in a blur of alcohol, sambuca shots and cheap cigarettes and all four of them know they've got work tomorrow. And it wouldn't be great to work with a hangover but it's nice to drink with people you consider to be your friends.

She stumbles out of the pub, Charlie being the only one who's completely wasted and the other three are slightly concerned about her alcoholic intake.

"Are you sure you're gonna be alright?" Jamie asks and she nods as she fumbles in her back pocket for her cigarettes, "Course, I'm a big girl." She replies and puts a cigarette in her mouth. When she catches their look, she removes the cigarette from her mouth,

"Look I'm okay, I'm drunk but I'm perfectly capable of getting home. Go, I'll see you in the morning."

They're reluctant to leave her in the state she's in but slowly walk away in the direction of town. She puts the cigarette back in her mouth and lights it, inhaling the smoke. Blowing it out in circles, she walks towards the hospital and leans against the wall.

She takes a couple more drags of her cigarette, wondering why she's so bothered about everything, the situations she's found herself in. This, afterall was her own decision to come to England. She was brave enough to come all this way, she'd have to be brave to sort it all out.

She stumbles into somebody leaving the Emergency Department and whispers, "Woops my bad, sorry."

She feels a hand placed on her arm and she tries to struggle free, "Look ya twat, lemme go."

As she looks up, her eyes fall upon Zoe Hanna, consultant. She doesn't say anything and luckily Zoe doesn't hold it against her, "I think you've had too much to drink, let me take you home Charlie."

She mutters an apology, one that Zoe hears and accepts. Charlie agrees to be taken home even though all she wants to do is go out and party even more. She gets in Zoe's car and takes a mental note that the car is fucking gorgeous, soooo beautiful.

"I used to be like you, I used to drink too much."

"Hmmm."

There's no conversation just the soft gentle hum of the radio playing some hip hop stuff remixed due to the late night, "What's your address?"

"Nineteen Bridgeleigh Towers, by the river."

Zoe nods and drives out of the hospital car park. Charlie stares out of the window feeling queesy and wanting to be sick. She doesn't know if it's the alcohol or the poision that's running through her veins at the moment that's making her want to be sick.

"How did you find your first day?"

She swallows hard, closes her eyes and puts her hand over her mouth. A couple of seconds after she's composed herself, she answers Zoe's question, "Weird, fun, exciting, different." She presses her head against the window, feeling vomit rise in her throat.

She takes a deep breath and whispers; "I think, I think I'm gonna be sick."

Charlie's grateful that Zoe pulls over that minute and she opens the door to be sick. She brushes a strand of hair behind her ear and empties the contents of her stomach on the concrete. She hates being sick and being sick makes her miss her mother even more.

Her mother always looked after her when she was ill.

"Done?" She hears Zoe ask and she nods and wipes away the tears that had begun to stream down her cheeks. She doesn't really remember the journey home, just being dropped off by Zoe, following through the front door and collapsing in the hallway, sobbing her heart out.

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	4. CHAPTER IV

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**CHAPTER FOUR**.  
_stand there, watch me burn._

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"Charlotte, we need to discuss last night."

She's in the staff room, still ten minutes early for her shift despite four hours sleep. She closes her locker and stares at Charlie, her godfather, her _father_ and shrugs her shoulders, "What if I don't want to talk, you can't make me."

She goes to leave, to walk away from him when he stops her, "Charlie, what did you mean by "the truth?" The truth about what?"

There's a silence, "You have no idea?"

He shakes his head. He'd spent the night trying to discover what the truth could be but kept hitting a brick wall. He couldn't understand what Charlie knew the truth about and he knew this was his chance, they needed to talk.

"You're my father Charlie."

The words hit him like a tonne of bricks. He stares at Charlie for a moment and frowns, "Charlie I—"

She takes a deep breath herself and knows it's a lot for him to take in. She sits down, "You and my mother had a one night stand which resulted in me. She couldn't bring herself to tell you that's why—"

"Is that why you're here?"

Charlie looks at the man who's meant to be her father and shakes her head; "No! I came here because I really want to be an Nurse. I want to work for the NHS because we're lucky it even exists. I only got told the other day, mum told me the truth."

There's a pause and she decides fills the silence, "Look that's why you're my godfather. When and if mum ever died, you'd be able to look after me. That's why she did it Charlie, she just couldn't tell you I was yours."

Charlie had been lucky to inherit mostly her mother's looks except her eyes. Her eyes were definitely the eyes of her father, pale green; "Say something, anything even if it's too say you hate me."

"Charlie, I could never hate you." He walks towards her and sits down beside her. There's a silence between them, neither of them really know how to fill the silence. How can they say something when they're both getting over the revealation they're related?

It seems like an eternity sat there, hoping the other will break the silence.

She decides to break the silence again, "Will you still mentor me?"

He nods and smiles. There's another silence, their eyes meet and Charlie asks; "Can I call you dad?"

He nods and she smiles. He realises it's going to take him time to get used to being called dad but he realises this is his second chance. His chance of fatherhood, to become a better father to Charlie than he did with Louis. He just knew it was going to take time to get used to his current situation.

Everything he could think of would take time.

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**jottings** — short story finished, thanks for reading&reviewing:D


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